The Statements of Accounts set out how the money for each former council was spent and raised throughout the year. It also shows a year-end balance sheet that summarises the value of each council’s assets and liabilities.
Councils must produce an annual Statement of Accounts in accordance with legislative requirements and the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting in the UK.
Delay in publishing audited Statement of Accounts for year ended 31 March 2023
The accounts and audit regulations (2022) changed the deadline for publishing audited local authority accounts. Commencing with the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023 and for a period of six years, the publishing deadline will be 30 September.
The external audit of the draft Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023 has not yet been completed for the following legacy councils in North Yorkshire:
- Craven District Council
- Hambleton District Council
- Harrogate Borough Council
- North Yorkshire County Council
- Richmondshire District Council
- Ryedale District Council
- Selby District Council
- Scarborough Borough Council
This situation is allowed for by Regulation 10, paragraph (2) of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/234), as amended by the Accounts and Audit (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (S1 2021/263).
This notification explains, as per Regulation 10 (2) (a), that we are not yet able to publish our audited 2022-2023 Statement of Accounts in line with the publication date of 30 September 2023, as per Regulation 10 (1). The delays are largely due to the respective external auditors needing to clear a backlog of audit work from previous years nationally which is impacting on the timely delivery of the 2022-2023 audits.
The following 'Audit delay letters' provided by the respective external auditors of Craven District Council, Hambleton District Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Richmondshire District Council, Scarborough Borough Council and Selby District Council explaining that the auditor's Annual Reports, which include commentary on each council's arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources (value for money), will not be produced by the 30 September deadline.
- Craven District Council's audit delay letter (pdf / 106 KB)
- Hambleton District Council's audit delay letter (pdf / 109 KB)
- Harrogate Borough Council's audit delay letter (pdf / 191 KB)
- Richmondshire District Council's audit delay letter (pdf / 108 KB)
- Ryedale District Council's audit delay letter (pdf / 94 KB)
- Selby District Council's audit delay letter (pdf / 129 KB)
- Scarborough Borough Council's audit delay letter (pdf / 129 KB)
The council is continuing to work closely with the respective external auditors to ensure the required work is completed as soon as possible.
Publication of draft unaudited Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities announced that the deadline for publication of the draft unaudited Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023 is 31 May 2023.
On 1 April 2023 North Yorkshire moved to a unitary model of local government replacing eight councils with one. Statement of Accounts are required to be published for each of the eight legacy councils for the year ended 31 March 2023.
Dates on which draft Statement of Accounts for each legacy council were published as follows:
- Hambleton District Council, Ryedale District Council and Selby District Council were published on 31 May 2023
- North Yorkshire County Council were published on 12 June 2023
- Scarborough Borough Council were published on 14 June 2023
- Richmondshire District Council were published on 15 June 2023
- Harrogate Borough Council were published on 19 June 2023
Please note that the periods for the exercise of public rights to inspect the above draft accounts and related documents, as per Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/234), and as amended by the Accounts and Audit (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/263) have now all expired.
- Hambleton Draft Statement of Accounts (pdf / 2 MB)
- Hambleton Public Inspection Notice (pdf / 142 KB)
- Ryedale Draft Statement of Account (pdf / 2 MB)
- Ryedale Public Inspection Notice (pdf / 396 KB)
- Selby Draft Statement of Account (pdf / 858 KB)
- Selby Public Inspection Notice (pdf / 116 KB)
- North Yorkshire County Council public rights of inspection notice (pdf / 94 KB)
- North Yorkshire County Council draft statement of accounts 2022-2023 (pdf / 2 MB)
- Scarborough draft statement of accounts 2022-2023 (pdf / 2 MB)
- Scarborough public rights of inspection notice
- Richmondshire draft statement of accounts 2022-2023 (pdf / 1 MB)
- Richmondshire public rights of inspection notice
- Harrogate Borough Council Draft Statement of Accounts 2022-2023 (pdf / 2 MB)
- Harrogate Borough Council public rights of inspection notice
The audit of the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 is still in progress for Craven District Council, Harrogate Borough Council, Richmondshire District Council and Scarborough Borough Council, due to a variety of complex factors arising from audit delays, some from previous years.
This has impacted on the commencement of the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2023 for Craven District Council and we will therefore not be in a position to commence the period for the exercise of public rights as set out above. The draft unaudited accounts and the period for the exercise of public rights will be published as soon as is reasonably practicable.
Statement of Accounts of former North Yorkshire councils from previous years
Statement of Accounts for all former councils in North Yorkshire for previous financial years can be found on the Data North Yorkshire website. To find accounts for a specific former council, select the former council from the list of organisations and search for 'accounts'.
Statement of Accounts for former Selby District Council for the year ending 31 March 2021
The external audit of the Statement of Accounts for the former Selby District Council for the year ending 31 March 2021 was officially completed on 8 December 2023 as per the notice and audit certificate below. A copy of the audited accounts is also available below.
Selby District Council final accounts (pdf / 4 MB)
Selby District Council notice of completion (pdf / 99 KB)
Selby District Council audit certificate 2020-21 (pdf / 83 KB)
North Yorkshire County Council published audited Statement of Accounts for year ended 31 March 2022
The final audited Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 is now published following the completion of the audit and the issue of the Independent Auditor’s report.